UDC opens its first dorm

This week, about 90 University of the District of Columbia students are moving into the school's first-ever dorm.

Well, it's not really a dorm -- more a bunch of apartments in a building across the street from the campus in Northwest Washington. But there are RAs, room assignments, rules, ice breakers, lots of programming and plans for a room decoration competition in September.

Grace Mulenga, 23, used to commute an hour each way to campus from Laurel, where she lived with relatives. Now, "you can just walk right across campus and do whatever you want to do," said Mulenga, a senior economics and finance major.

Three to four students are assigned to a two-bedroom apartment and pay about $4,270 a semester. In the next few years, the university plans to construct a dorm that could house 200 to 300 students. It's all part of an effort to build a feeling of student life and community at the commuter campus. It will also help the school attract students from outside of the District.

"With any student who is looking to go away and go to college, they want to live on campus," said Shauna Brew, a business manager in the university's facilities office. "That's a basic amenity at most universities."

After school,the rush out to get new place,new people and new environment so we are not expecting such a huge amount of crowed gathered us.So we provide all things which they need to get good education and facility as well.

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